Alister McGrath - Theology and Experience

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• Theology

and

Experience

Reflections on Cognitive and Experiential Approaches to Theology

• La theologie et ] experience

• Theologie

und

Erfahrung

Alister E. McGrath, Lecturer in Christian Doctrine, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford

SUMMARY

The article deals with the manner in which the

cognitive and experiential aspects of Christian

theology relate to one another. It is shown that

theology provides an interpretative framework

by which human experience may be addressed,

interpreted

and

transformed. The relation

between theology and experience is explored

RESUME

L auteur traite des rapports entre

l

aspect

cognit if et [ experience dans la theologie

chretienne. ll soutient que la theologie fournit

un cadre interpretatif qui permet de considerer,

d interpreter et de transformer [ experience

humaine.

ll

examine cette relation en

s appuyant principalement sur les ecrits de

Martin Luther et

de

C.

S. Lewis.

Il

montre

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit dem Verhiiltnis

zwischen dem kognitiven

und

dem

erfahrungsmiiftigen Aspekt christlicher

Theologie.

Es

wird gezeigt, daft Theologie einen

Rahmen bietet, mit Hilfe dessen die mensch

liche Erfahrung angegangen, interpretiert und

verwandelt werden kann. Das Verhiiltnis von

Theologie

und

Er{ahrung wird unter

besonderer Berucksichtigung der

W

rke von

Martin Luther

und

C. S. Lewis untersucht.

Es

E

xperience is

an

imprecise

term. The

origins of

the

English word

are

rela

tively well understood: it derives from the

Latin

term

experientia,

which could be

inter

preted

as that

which

arises out of

travelling

with particular reference to the writings of

MartinLutherandC.

S. Lewis.lt is shown how

Christianity may be related to experience

without recourse to the discredited liberal

appeal

to

general human experience or

compromising the total grounding of theology

in the self-revelation ofGod in Scripture.

comment le christianisme a trait a experience

sans qu il soit besoin de faire appel

a

a notion

liberale discreditee de l experience humaine

generale , et sans compromettre le principe

selon lequel toute theologie doit se fonder

uniquement

sur

la revelation que Dieu nous a

donnee de lui-meme dans

l' Ecriture.

wird gezeigt, wie ein Bezug zwischen dem

Christentum und

der Er{ahrung hergestellt

werden kann ohne entweder

auf

die

diskreditierte liberale Berufung

auf

die

allgemeine menschliche Er{ahrung

zurilckzugreifen oder die ausschliePliche

Grundung der Theologie in der Selbstoffen

barung Gottes in der Schrift zu

kompromittieren.

through

life

(ex-perientia) .

In

this broad

sense, it means

an accumulated

body

of

knowledge,

arising through first-hand

encounter

with life .

When

one speaks of

an experienced

teacher

or an experienced

EuroJTh

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•

llster E Mc ralh

•

doctor ,

the

implication is

that the teacher

or

doctor

has learned

her

craft

through first

hand

application.

Yet

the term has developed

an

acquired meaning,

which particularly

concerns us

here.

t has come

to

refer

to

the

inner

life of individuals,

in

which

those

individuals become

aware of their

own sub

jective feelings

and

emotions.

1

t relates

to

the

inward

and subjective world of experience,

as

opposed

to

the outward world

of everyday

life. A series of writings, including William

James s celebrated study The Varieties of

Religious Experience (1902),

have stressed

the importance

of

the subjective

aspects

of religion

in general, and

Christianity

in

particular. Christianity

is not simply about

ideas; it is

about the

interpretation

and

transformation of the inner life of the

individual. This concern with

human

ex

perience is

particularly

associated

with

the

movement generally

known

as

existen

tialism,

which

has

sought to restore

an

awareness

of

the importance

of

the inner

life

of individuals to both

theology

and

philosophy.

2

Two main approaches may be discerned

within

Christian theology

to

the question of

the

relation

of experience

to

theology:

1.

Experience

provides a

foundational

re

source for

Christian

theology.

2.

Christian

theology provides

an

inter

pretative framework by which human

experience may be

interpreted.

The

first

approach

has

been of major

impor

tance within recent liberal theological

approaches; the second is

especially as

sociated

with

evangelical orthodoxy, and

will

be

explored in the present article. We

begin, however, by considering

the

first

position.

The idea that human

religious experience

can act

as

a

foundational resource for

Christian

theology

has

obvious

attractions.

t

suggests that

Christian theology is con

cerned

with human experience-something

which

is common to all humanity,

rather

than

the exclusive

preserve of

a small group.

To those who are embarrassed by the scandal

of

particularity

the approach has

many

n ~ r i t s t suggests that all

the

world re

ligions

are

basically

human

responses

to the

same

religious

experience-often referred to

as

a core experience

of

the

transcendent .

• EuroJTh :

Theology is

thus the Christian attempt

to

reflect upon

this

common human experience,

in

the knowledge

that

the same experience

underlies

the other world religions. We shall

return to

this

point

later in dealing with the

question of

the

relation of Christianity

t

the other

religions.

This approach also

has

considerable

attractions

for

Christian apologetics, as

the

writings

of

many recent American

theologians, especially

Paul

Tillich

and

David Tracy,

make

clear.

In that humans

share

a common experience, whether

they

choose

to regard it as

religious or

not,

Christian theology can

address this

common

experience. The problem

of agreeing

upon a

common starting point is thus avoided; the

starting point

is

already

provided,

in human

experience. Apologetics

can

demonstrate

that

the Christian gospel makes

sense of

common

human

experience. This approach is probably

seen at its best

in Paul

Tillich s sermons The

Courage t Be which

attracted

considerable

attention after their

publication

in

1952.

t

seemed

to

many observers

that

Tillich had

succeeded

in

correlating the Christian proc

l m t ~ o n with common human experience.

3

But there are difficulties

here.

The most

obvious is

that

there is

actually very

little

empirical evidence for a common core ex

perience

throughout

human

history and

culture. The idea

is easily postulated, and

virtually

impossible to verify.

This

approach

has found its

most

mature and sophisticated

expression

in the Experiential-Expressive

Theory of Doctrine ,

to

use a term employed

by

the distinguished Yale theologian George

Lindbeck.

In

his volume The ature

of

Doctrine (1984), Lindbeck provides an im

portant

analysis of

the nature of Christian

doctrine.

4

One of the

many

merits of this

book is the

debate

which

it

has

initiated

over

this unjustly

neglected aspect

of Christian

theology, which has assumed new importance

recently on account of the impact of the

ecumenical movement.

Lindbeck suggests

that

theories of

doc

trine may be

divided into three general

types.

The

cognitive-propositionalist theory

lays stress upon the cognitive aspects of

religion, emphasizing

the manner in

which

doctrines function as truth claims or

informative propositions.

The experiential-



• Theology and xperience •

expressive

theory interprets

doctrines as

non-cognitive

symbols

of inner

human

feelings

or attitudes.

A

third

possibility,

which Lindbeck

himself

favours, is the

cultural-linguistic

approach to

religion.

Lindbeck associates

this

model

with

a rule

or

regulative

theory of doctrine.

t is

Lindbeck s criticism of

the

second such theory

which is of particular interest to us at this

point.

The experiential-expressive theory,

according to Lindbeck, sees religions, in

cluding Christianity,

as

public, culturally

conditioned manifestat ions and affirmations

of pre-linguistic

forms

of

consciousness,

attitudes and feelings. In other words, there

is some common

universal

religious

ex

perience , which

Christian theology (in

common

with other

religions)

attempts

to

express in words. The experience comes first;

the theology comes

in

later. As Lindbeck

argues, the attraction of this approach to

doctrine is grounded

in

a number of features

of

late

twentieth-century

western

thought.

For

example,

the

contemporary preoccupation

with inter-religious dialogue is considerably

assisted

by

the suggestion that the various

religions are diverse expressions of a common

core experience, such as an isolable core of

encounter

or an unmediated

awareness of

the

transcendent .

The principal objection

to

this

theory, thus

stated, is

its

resistance to verification. As

Lindbeck points out, religious experience is

a hopelessly

vague

idea. It is difficult

or

impossible to specify its distinctive features,

and yet unless this is done, the assertion of

commonality

becomes

logically and em

pirically vacuous.

The

assertion

that the

various religions

are

diverse symbolizations

of one

and

the

same

core experience

of

the

Ultimate is ultimately an unverifiable hy

pothesis, not least on account of

the

difficulty

of locating and describing the core ex

perience

concerned. As

Lindbeck

rightly

points out,

this

would appear to suggest that

there

is

at least the

logical possibility

that

a Buddhist

and

a Christian

might have

basically the

same

faith, although expressed

very

differently . The

theory can

only be

credible if it is possible to isolate a common

core experience from religious language

and

behaviour,

and demonstrate that

the

latter

two

are

articulations

of

or responses to the

former.

For such reasons, the second

approach

outlined above to the

understanding

of the

relation between experience

and

theology

has regained a hearing. According to

this

approach,

Christian

theology provides

a

framework

by

which the ambiguities of ex

perience may be interpreted. Theology aims

to

interpret

experience. t is like a

net

which

we can

cast over

experience,

in order

to

capture

its meaning. Experience is seen as

something which is to be interpreted, rather

than something which is itself capable of

interpreting. Christian theology thus aims

to

address interpret

and

transform

human

experience. In

what

follows, I propose to ex

plore these themes with particular reference

to

the

writings of

Martin Luther and

Clive

Stapleton (Jack) Lewis,

best

known

to

his

many readers

as

C. S. Lewis .

European

theology, with its long tradition of wrestling

with experience within a cognitive frame

work, has an important contribution

to

make

to

this global discussion, of especial relevance

in

an experience-centered age.

5

1.

Theology addresses experience

Christian theology

cannot remain

faithful to

its

subject

matter

if it

regards itself

as

purely

propositional or cognitive in

nature.

The

Christian

encounter

with

God

is trans

formative. As Calvin pointed out, to know

God is

to

be changed by God; true knowledge

of God leads

to

worship, as the believer is

caught up

in

a

transforming and

renewing

encounter with the living God. To

know

God

is to

be

changed by

God.

6

As Sfjren

Kierkegaard pointed out in his Unscientific

Postscript

to

know the truth is to be known

by

the truth.

Truth

is

something which

affects

our inner

being,

as

we become in

volved in an appropriation process of the

most passionate inwardness .

7

This is in no sense to deny or to de

emphasize the cognitive aspects of

Christian

theology. t is merely

to

observe that there

is more

to theology

than

cerebralized in

formation. A theology which

touches the

mind,

leaving the

heart unaffected, is no

true Christian theology-a point stressed by

both

Luther

and

Calvin. Although

Luther

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•

is critical

of

the role

of

experience in

spirituality, he does not dismiss

it

as an

irrelevance. Indeed,

Luther

insists that

there is one experience which

is

basic to

being a theologian. He describes this briefly

in

one of his most quoted (and most difficult )

statements. It is living, dying, and even

being condemned which

makes

a theologian

not reading, speculating and understand

ing'.8

When I first read these words ofLuther,

I found them baffiing. Surely theology

was

about reading

scripture,

and

trying to

make

sense of it?

What

was Luther complaining

about? Now I know, and I am convinced that

Luther

is right. To be a

real

theologian is to

wrestle with none other than the

living

God-not

with ideas about God, but with

God himself.

And

how

can

a sinner

ever

hope to deal adequately with this God?

f you want to be a

real

theologian, Luther

insists, you must have experienced a sense

of

condemnation.

You must

have

had a

moment

of insight,

in

which you realize just

how sinful you really are, and how much you

merit the condemnation of God. Christ's

death on the cross spells out the full extent

of God's wrath against sin, and shows us up

as ones who

are

condemned.

t

is only from

this

point

that

we

can

fully appreciate the

central theme of the New Testament-how

God

was

able to deliver sinners from

their

fate.

Without

a full

awareness

of our sin,

and the dreadful

gulf this

opens up between

ourselves

and God,

we

cannot

appreciate

the

joy and wonder of the proclamation of for

giveness through Jesus Christ. In a letter to

his

colleague Philip Melanchthon,

dated

13

January 1522,

Luther

suggested

that he ask

the so-called

'prophets'

who were then

confusing the

faithful

at Wittenberg

the

following question: 'have they experienced

spiritual distress

and

the divine birth, death

and

hell?' A list of spiritual sensations is no

substitute

for

the terror that

accompanies a

real encounter

with

the living

God. For

these modern prophets, Luther wrote, 'the

sign of the Son of man is missing'.

A

modern illustration

might make this

point. In his book

The Restoring Word

J.

Randall Nichols wrote of

an

experience

he

had

while visiting the

Greek

island of Corfu.

'Some of the

most

beautiful music I ever

heard

was

the

chanting

of

Greek

peasant

68

•

EuroJTh

:

women, tears streaming down their lined

and

hardened

faces, in a church on Corfu one

Good Friday. I

asked

someone why they

were weeping.

"Because",

he said,

their

Christ

is dead." I have often

thought

that I

will

never

understand

what

resurrection

means until I

can

weep like that.' Nichols'

point, so memorably made, is

that

we can

never

appreciate

the

joy and hope of the

resurrection, unless we have been plunged

into the sense of hopelessness

and

helpless

ness which pervaded that first Good Friday.

What is true of the resurrection is also

true

of

forgiveness.

Christian spirituality

is

grounded

in

an

awareness

of being a con

demned sinner-an

experience

which is

utterly transformed

by divine forgiveness.

We can never understand what forgiveness

really means

until

we have wept the

tears

of

condemnation.

Just about

anyone can

read

the New

Testament, and make

some

sort

of sense of

it.

But, Luther insists, the real theologian is

someone who has experienced a

sense

of

condemnation on account of sin-who reads

the New

Testament, and

realizes that

the

message

of

forgiveness is good news for

him

or her. The gospel is thus experienced as

something

liberating,

something which

transforms our situation, something which

is

relevant

to us.

t

is very easy to

read the

New

Testament

as if it were

nothing

more

than

any other piece of literature.

And

Luther

reminds

us that

it is only

through

being

aware of our sin, and all its impli

cations,

that

we can fully appreciate the

wonder of

the

electrifying declaration that

God has forgiven

our sins

through Jesus

Christ.

2. Theology

interprets

experience

t

is a consequence of

the

Christian

doctrine

of creation

that

we

are made in

the image of

God. There is

an

inbuilt capacity-indeed,

we might say, an inbuilt

need to

relate to

God. To fail to relate to God is to fail to be

completely human. To be fulfilled is to be

filled by God. Nothing

that

is

transitory can

ever

fill

this

need. Nothing

that

is not itself

God

can ever

hope to

take

the place of

God.

And yet,

on

account of the fallenness of

human nature, there is now a natural ten-



• Theology

nd

xperience •

dency to try to make

other

things fulfil this

need.

Sin moves us away from God,

and tempts

us

to

place other

things

in

his

place. Created

things thus come to

be

substituted for God.

And

they

do not satisfy.

And

like the child

who experiences

and

expresses dissatisfaction

when the

square

peg fails to fit

the

round

hole, so we experience a sense of dissatis-

faction. Somehow, we are left with a feeling

of longing-longing for something undefin-

able, of which human nature knows nothing,

save that it does not possess it.

This

phenomenon

has

been

recognized

since the dawn of

human

civilization.

In

one

of

his

dialogues,

9

Plato compares

human

beings to leaky jars. Somehow,

we

are always

unfulfilled. We may pour things into the

containers

of

our

lives,

but

something pre-

vents

them

from ever being entirely filled.

We

are

always partly empty-and for that

reason, experience a profound awareness of

a lack of fullness and happiness. Those who

have endured the void know that

they

have

encountered a distinctive hunger, or empti-

ness; nothing earthly satisfies it (Diogenes

Allen).

10

This

well-documented feeling

of

dissatisfaction is one of

the

most

important

points of contact for the gospel proclamation.

In the first place,

that

proclamation

inter

prets this

vague

and unshaped

feeling

as

a

longing for God

It

gives cognitive substance

and shape

to

what would

otherwise

be

an

amorphous

and

unidentified

subjective in-

tuition. And in the second, it offers to fulfil

it. There is a sense of divine dissatisfaction

no t

dissatisfaction with God, but a dis-

satisfaction with all that is not God, which

arises from God, and which ultimately leads

to

God. Sartre is right:

the

world cannot

bring fulfilment. Here

he

echoes

the

Christian view, which goes on to affirm that

here,

in the

midst

of

the

world, something

which is ultimately beyond the world makes

itself available to us. We

do

not need to wait

for eternity

to

experience God; that ex-

perience can begin, however imperfectly,

now. Perhaps the greatest statement of this

feeling,

and

its most exquisite theological

interpretation, may be found in the famous

words of

Augustine

of

Hippo:

You have

made

us for

yourself,

and our

hearts

are

restless until

they

rest in you .U

Thoughout Augustine s

reflections,

es-

pecially in the

Confessions,

the same theme

recurs. We are doomed to remain incomplete

in

our

present existence. Our hopes

and

deepest

longings

will remain nothing but

hopes and longings.

The

resolution of this

bitter-sweet

tension

remains

real, even for

the

Christian,

who becomes increasingly

aware of

the wonder

of

God, and

of

the

inadequacy of our present grasp

of that

wonder. There is a sense of postponement, of

longing, of wistful yearning, of

groaning

under the strain of having to tolerate the

present, when the future offers so much.

12

The grand themes of creation and redemption

there find a

creative reworking

which de-

serves careful attention. Because we are

created by God in his image, we desire him;

because we

are

sinful, we cannot satisfy

that

desire

ourselves-either by

substituting

something for God,

or

by trying

to

coerce

him

to come to us. And so a real sense of

frustration, of dissatisfaction, develops. And

that dissatisfaction-but not its theological

interpretation-is part of common human

experience. Perhaps

the

finest statement of

this exquisite agony is found in Augustine s

cry

that

he is

groaning

with inexpressible

groanings

on my

wanderer s

path, and re-

membering Jerusalem with my heart lifted

up towards

i t-Jerusalem

my home

land,

Jerusalem my mother.

13

We are exiled from

our homeland-but

its

memories

return

hauntingly.

Augustine finds one of his finest recent

apologetic interpreters in the writings of the

Oxford

literary

critic and theologian C S.

Lewis.

Perhaps one of the

most

original

aspects of

C S. Lewis

writing

is his per-

sistent and

powerful appeal

to

the religious

imagination, in developing Augustine s

maxim

desiderium sinus

cordis

(longing

makes

the

heart

deep) .

Like Augustine,

Lewis

was aware of

certain deep human

emotions which pointed to a dimension of

our existence beyond time and space. There

is, Lewis suggested, a deep and intense

feel-

ing of longing within human beings, which

no

earthly

object or experience can satisfy.

Lewis terms this sense )oy , and argues that

it points to God

as

its source and goal (hence

the title of

his

celebrated autobiography,

Surprised by Joy .

Joy, according to Lewis,

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llster

E

Mc rath

is

an

unsatisfied desire which is itself more

desirable than any other satisfaction

anyone who has experienced

it

will want

it

again.

14

To understand Lewis

at

this point, the

idea of joy needs to be explained

in

some

detail.

From the

windows of

his

home

in

Belfast, Northern Ireland, the young Lewis

could see the distant Castlereagh Hills. Those

distant hills seemed to him to symbolize

something which lay beyond his reach. A

sense

of intense longing arose

as he

con

templated

them. He could

not

say exactly

wh t it was that he longed

for;

merely that

there was a sense of emptiness within him,

which

the

mysterious hills seemed to

heighten, without satisfying. Lewis describes

this experience

(perhaps

better

known

to

students

of

German

Romanticism

as

Sehnsucht

in

some

detail in

his auto

biography. He relates how, as a young child,

he was standing by a flowering currant

bush,

when-for

some unexplained reason

a memory was triggered

off

There suddenly rose in me without warning,

as iffrom

a depth

not of years but

of centuries,

the

memory of

that

earlier morning at the Old

House when

my brother had

brought his toy

garden into

the

nursery. t is difficult to find

words

strong

enough for

the

sensation which

came

over me; Milton s

enormous

bliss

of

Eden comes somewhere near it. It was a

sensation,

of

course, of desire;

but

desire for

what? Not, certainly, for a biscuit tin filled

with moss, nor even (though

that

came into it)

for my own past and before I knew what

I desired,

the

desire

itself was gone,

the

whole glimpse withdrawn,

the

world

turned

commonplace again, or only stirred by a longing

for the longing that had

just

ceased. t had

only taken a moment of time;

and

in a certain

sense everything else that had ever happened

to me was insignificant in comparison.

15

Lewis

here

describes

a

brief

moment of

insight, a devastating moment of feeling

caught up

in something

which goes

far

beyond the realms of everyday experience.

But

what did it mean? What, if anything,

did it point to?

Lewis addressed this question

in

a re

markable

sermon entitled The Weight of

Glory , preached before

the

University of

Oxford on 8 June 1941. Lewis spoke of

a desire which no natural happiness will

7 EuroJTh

2:1

satisfy , a desire, still wandering and uncer

tain of its object and still largely unable to

see that object

in

the direction where it

really lies . There is something self-defeating

about human

desire,

in that what

is desired,

when

achieved, seems to leave

the

desire

unsatisfied. Lewis illustrates this from the

age-old quest for beauty, using recognizably

Augustinian imagery:

The books

or the

music in which we

thought

the

beauty

was located will betray us if we

trust

to them;

it

was

not in

them,

it

only came

through them, and what came through

them

was

longing. These

things-the

beauty,

the

memory

of our

own

past-are

good images of

what we really desire; but i f hey are mistaken

for the

thing

itself

they turn

into dumb idols,

breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For

they are

not the

thing

itself;

they

are only the

scent of a flower we

have not

found,

the

echo

of

a

tune

we

have

not heard, news from a

country we have not visited.

16

Human desire,

the

deep

and

bitter-sweet

longing for something that will satisfy us,

points beyond finite objects and finite persons

(who seem able

to fulfil

this

desire,

yet

eventually prove incapable of doing so);

it

points

through

these objects,

and

persons

towards their real goal and fulfilment in

God himself.

t

is as if

human

love points to

something beyond it,

as

a parable.

Pleasure, beauty, personal relationships:

all seem to promise so much,

and

yet when

we grasp them, we find that what we were

seeking was not located in them,

but

lies

beyond them. There is a divine dissatis

faction within human experience, which

prompts us to ask whether

there

is

anything

which

may

satisfy the

human

quest to fulfil

the

desires of

the

human heart. Lewis argues

that

there

is. Hunger, he suggests, is an

excellent

example of a human sensation

which corresponds to a

real

physical need.

This need points to the existence of

food

by

which

it

may be met. Simone Weil echoes

this theme, and points to its apologetic im

portance when she writes: The danger is not

lest the soul should doubt whether

there

is

any

bread,

but

lest, by a lie,

it

should per

suade

itself

that

it

is not hungry. It can only

persuade itself of this by lying, for

the

reality

of its hunger is not a belief, it is a certainty.

17

Thirst, according to Lewis, is a further



Theology

nd

xperience

example of

a human longing pointing

to

a

human need, which

in

turn points to

its

fulfilment in drinking-if the human

being

in

question

is to survive.

Any

human long-

ing,

he

argues, points to a genuine

human

need, which in turn points to a

real

object

corresponding

to

that need. A

similar

point

is made, although a little cryptically, in

relation to human sexual desire. And so,

Lewis suggests, it is reasonable to suggest

that the deep

human

sense of infinite longing

which cannot

be

satisfied

by any

physical or

finite object or

person

must

point to

a real

human need which can, in

some way, be

met. Lewis argues that this

sense

of longing

points to its origin and its fulfilment in God

himself.

Lewis less perceptive critics-sadly, more

numerous than one might

have hoped

argued

that his argument rested upon an

elementary

fallacy.

Being

hungry

didn t

prove

that there

was bread at hand. The

feeling

of hunger

did not necessarily corres-

pond to a supply of food. This objection,

Lewis replies, misses the point.

A man s physical hunger does not prove that

man

will

get

any bread;

he

may die

of starva

tion in a raft in

the

Atlantic. But surely a

man s

hunger does prove

that he

comes

of

a

race

which

repairs

its body by eating

and

inhabits

a world

where eatable substances

exist. In the same way, though I do not believe

(I

wish

I did) that my

desire

for

Paradise

proves

that

I shall enjoy it, I think

it

a

pretty

good indication

that

such a thing exists and

that

some men will. A man may love a woman

and

not win her;

but

it would be very odd

if

the phenomenon called falling in love occurred

in a sexless world.1s

In all

this,

Lewis echoes a great theme of

traditional

Christian thinking about the

origin and goal

of human nature.

We are

made by

God,

and

we experience

a

deep

sense

of

longing for him, which only he can

satisfy. Although Lewis reflections on the

desire

he

calls joy reflect his personal ex-

perience, it is evident that

he

(and countless

others) consider

that

this

sense

oflonging is

a widespread feature

of

human nature

and

experience. An important

point

of contact

for the proclamation of the gospel is thus

established.

Lewis

insights also bring

new

depth

to

familiar biblical passages concerning human

longing for

God. As

the

deer

pants

for

streams of water, so

my

soul pants for you,

0 God. My soul

thirsts

for God, the living

God (Ps. 42:1).

Note

the great

sense of

longing

for God expressed in

this verse-a

sense of

longing which assumes added

meaning

if

Lewis reflections

on

joy are

allowed. Note also the biblical parallel be-

tween a sense of need-in this case, animal

thirst-and the human need and desire for

God.

Theology

thus

interprets human experi-

ence. Yet at times, experience needs

to be

radically reinterpreted. This is a major theme

of Luther s theology of the cross .

19

For

Luther, the cross mounts a powerful attack

on

another human resource upon which too

much spiritual weight is

often

placed, es-

pecially

in

modern western thought. The

experience of the individual is singled out as

having revelatory authority.

What

I experi-

ence is

what

is right. I don t experience

it

that

way. Luther

suggests that

individual

experience is often seriously unreliable as a

guide to matters of faith. The way we experi-

ence things isn t necessarily the way things

really are.

An example-which I hasten

to add

is not

used

by Luther

himself-might be

helpful in

bringing out

the

point

at

issue. Suppose you

have been out of doors for some time on a

very cold night. You arrive at the house of a

friend, who notices how cold you are. What

you need is a good

drink,

he tells you.

Have

a glass of

brandy.

You drink it.

And

after a

few

minutes,

you become conscious of a feel-

ing of warmth. You experience the brandy

as

having warmed you up.

But in fact, the brandy will

make

you

colder. The alcohol

causes your

blood vessels

to

dilate,

giving

you the

impression

that

your

body is

produ ing

heat; in

fact,

it

is

losin heat. You may feel that you are

warming up-but in reality, you

are

cooling

down.

Heat

is being

given off

from your

body,

not

taken in by it. Your feelings have

led you seriously astray. Were you to drink

alcohol to warm yourself up in a

bitterly

cold situation, it is quite possible you could

die from the resulting

heat

loss. An external

observer

would be able to

detect

what

was

really happening-but

this

perspective

EuroJTh

2: 7



• llster E

Mc rath

•

would be denied t you, t the extent that

you relied upon your feelings.

This example has real spiritual relevance.

t

makes

the

point

that

experience needs to

be

criticized

You

felt

that you were being

warmed up-but

the

correct interpretation

of

that

experience is

that

you actually felt

the heat leaving your body, to be radiated

outward and lost to you. You need an external

reference point by which those feelings

can

be

evaluated and judged. Luther develops a

related argument: our experiences of God

need t be interpreted. The way we experi-

ence things isn t necessarily the way things

really are. The cross provides an external

reference point by which our feelings

can

be

evaluated

and

judged.

Perhaps the best way to understand the

spiritual importance

of

Luther s

approach

here

is

t

consider the scene

of

helplessness

and hopelessness on that first Good Friday,

as Jesus

Christ died upon

the

cross. The

crowd gathering round the cross were ex-

pecting something dramatic to happen. If

Jesus really was the son of God, they could

expect God

t

intervene and rescue him. Yet,

as

that

long day wore on, there was no sign

of a dramatic divine intervention. In his cry

from the cross, even Jesus himself experi-

enced a momentary yet profound sense of

the

absence of

God,

'My God,

my

God,

why

have you forsaken me?' Many expected God

to intervene dramatically in

the

situation, to

deliver the dying Jesus. But nothing of the

kind happened. Jesus suffered, and finally

died. There was no sign of God acting in that

situation. So those who based their thinking

about God solely on experience drew the

obvious conclusion:

God

was not there.

The resurrection overturned that judge-

ment. God was revealed as having been

present and active

at

Calvary, working out

the salvation of humanity and the vindication

of Jesus Christ. He was not perceived to be

present-but present

he really was. What

experience interpreted as the

absence

of God,

the resurrection showed up as the hi en

presence

of God. God may have been experi-

enced as inactive, yet the resurrection showed

God to have been active behind the scenes,

working in secret. For Luther, the resurrec-

tion demonstrates how unreliable the verdict

of human experience really is. Instead of

7 • EuroJTh :

relying upon the misleading impressions of

human experience, we should trust in God's

promises. God promises to be present with

us, even in life's darkest hours-and if

ex-

perience cannot detect him as being present,

then that verdict of experience must be con-

sidered unreliable.

This has important

results

for

Luther s

understanding of faith. Faith is

an

ability to

see God's presence and activity in the world,

and

in our

own experience. Faith sees

behind

external

appearances and the mis-

leading impressions of experience. t is an

openness, a willingness, to find God where

he

has

promised to be, even when experience

suggests that he is not there. Luther uses

the

phrase the darkness of faith' to make

this point. This has important results for

Luther s understanding

of

the nature

of

doubt.

Doubt shows up our natural tendency to

base our judgements upon experience, rather

than

faith. When faith and experience seem

to be out of step with each other, we tend to

trust our experience, rather than faith. But,

Luther points out, how unreliable a guide

experience turns out to be Those who trusted

in

experience on

the

first Good

Friday

looked very foolish in

the

light of

the

resurrection For Luther, the resurrection

demonstrates the superiority of faith in the

promises of God over reliance upon experi-

ence or reason.

We

must learn to let God be

God, and trust

in

him and his promises,

rather than in our own finite and inadequate

perception of a situation.

3. Theology transforms experience

Christian theology does not simply address

the human situation; it offers to transform

it. We are not simply told that we

are

sinners,

in

need

of

divine forgiveness

and

renewal;

that

forgiveness

and

renewal is offered to us

in the

gospel proclamation. If the negative

aspect of the Christian proclamation of the

crucified Christ is

that

we are far from God,

the positive side is that he offers to bring us

home to him

through the death

and resur-

rection of his Son. Theology, then, does not

simply

interpret

our experience in terms of

alienation from God. t addresses that ex-

perience,

interprets

it as a sign

of

our global



heology

and xperience

alienation

from God through sin, and offers

to transform it

through

the grace of

God.

t is one

of

the many merits

of

the writings

of

C. S. Lewis, that they take

seriously

the

way in

which words

can

generate

and

transform experience. In his

autobiography

Surprised by Joy, he comments on the effect

of a few lines of poetry upon his imagination.

The lines were from Longfellow s

Saga of

ing

Olaf.

I heard a

voice

that cried,

Balder the beautiful

Is dead, is dead.

These words

had

a profound impact upon the

young Lewis, as

he later

reflected.

I knew nothing about Balder; but instantly I

was uplifted into huge regions of northern sky,

I desired with almost sickening intensity

something never to be described (except that

it is cold spacious, severe, pale and remote)

and then

....

found myself at the very same

moment already falling out of that desire and

wishing I were back in it.

20

Words, Lewis thus discovered, have

the

ability

to

evoke an experience we have not

yet had, in addition

to

describing an experi

ence we are familiar with. That which is

known functions as a pointer to that which

is yet

to be

known,

and

which lies

within

our

grasp.

In

his essay

The Language

of

Religion,

Lewis made this crucial point as follows.

This is the most remarkable of the powers of

Poetic language: to convey to us the quality of

experiences which we have not had, or perhaps

can never have, to use factors within our

experience so that they become pointers to

something outside our experience-as two or

more roads on a map show us where a town

that

is off the map must lie. Many of us have

never had an experience like that which

Wordsworth records near the end of Prelude

XIII; but when he speaks of the visionary

dreariness , I think we get an inkling of it.

21

At its best, Christian theology shares this

characteristic of poetic

language

(not

poetry

itself, incidentally, Lewis stresses, but

the

language used in poetry , as identified

by

Lewis-it tries to convey

to

us

the quality

of

the Christian experience of God. t

attempts

to point beyond itself, to

rise

above itself,

straining

at

its lead as it

rushes

ahead, to

point us

to

a town beyond its map-a

town

which it knows is there, but

to

which it

cannot lead us.

Theology is able to use words in such a

way as to offer some pointers for the benefit

of

those

who have yet

to

discover

what it

feels like to experience God. t uses a

cluster

of

key

words to try and explain what it is

like to know God, by

analogy

with words

associated with human experience.

t

is like

forgiveness-in other words, if you can

imagine

what it feels like

to

be forgiven for

a

really

serious offence, you can begin to

understand the Christian experience of for

giveness. t is like

reconciliation-if

you can

imagine

the

joy of being reconciled to some

one

who

matters very much

to you, you can

get a glimpse of what

the

Christian experi

ence of coming home

to

God is like. t is like

coming home

after

being

away and

alone for

a long time, and perhaps fully expecting

never

to be able to

return.

Apologetics uses

analogies like these to try

and signpost

like roads leading off Lewis map to an

unseen town-the Christian experience of

God, for the benefit of

those

who have yet to

have

this transforming experience.

But how is it able to use words in this

way?

Is

there not a

certain arbitrariness

to

this whole business? How can we take the

human

experience of reconciliation, and dare

to say

that

it

somehow echoes

that

of

re

conciliation with God?

t

is

here

that

the

Christian

doctrine

of creation undergirds

our theological

affirmations.

The

analogy

is given, not invented. t is, so

to

speak,

built into the order of things. To speak of

redemption , forgiveness , reconciliation or

liberation is indeed to speak of situations

within

this human world.

But

it is also,

through the creative grace of God, to

speak

of the entry of God into his world, and his

ability to convey himself through our words.

He

who

was

rich beyond splendour became

poor

for

our

sakes-and

that

selfsame

willingess and ability

to become

poor is

demonstrated in the tender kindness which

allows human words-our words-to be

signposts to him.

22

Conclusion

In this article, we have explored some

of the

ways in which theology and experience relate

to each other. We have argued

that

there

is

EuroJTh

2: 73



• llster

E McGrath

•

no

rightful

place

in Christian

theology for

any

approach

that

is purely cognitive or

purely

experiential. Experience

and under-

standing are like two sides

of

the same coin,

which mutually reinforce and enhance one

another. The liberal appeal

to

pure uninter-

preted global experience is widely regarded

as

discredited,

partly on

account

of

the

con

siderations

noted by

George Lindbeck

and

others,

and

partly on

account of a new

awareness of

the

implications of

the

philosopy

of Ludwig Wittgenstein. As Stanley

Hauerwas

remarked,

Wittgenstein ended

forever

any attempt on my part to try to

anchor

theology in some general account of

human experience .

3

Yet

this

widespead

disenchantment with experience as a theo

logical resource

must

not allow

us to

reject

a

significant experiential component in

theological reflection. Furthermore,

as

I have

argued elsewhere, experience is a vital 'point

of

contact

for Christian

apologetics

in

a

postmodern

world.

4

Rather, we must

insist

that experience

is

to be addressed, inter-

preted and transformed in the light of the

gospel proclamation of

redemption

through

Christ,

as this is made

known

to us through

Scripture.

By thus anchoring

theology in the

bedrock

of

divine revelation, while

linking it

up to the

world

of

human experience, we

may ensure

that Christian

theology

remains

both

authentic

and

relevant in the

years

that

lie ahead. Theology can

address

experi

ence, without becoming reduced

to

the level

of a

mere reiteration

of

what

we experience

and

observe.

1 For a useful analysis, see Michael Oakeshott,

Experience

and

Its Modes

(Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1933). The best

general study, from a philosophical standpoint,

is Wayne Proudfoot,

Religious

Experience

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).

For a more theological approach, see Nicholas

Lash,

Easter in Ordinary: Reflections on Human

Experience and the Knowledge of God (London:

SCM Press, 1988).

2 See Gerhard Ebeling, 'Die Klage iiber

das

Erfahrungsdefizit in der Theologie als Frage

nach ihrer Sache , Wort

und

Glaube Ill

(Tiibingen: Mohr, 1975), pp. 3-28.

3 For a useful study, see C.

Stephen

Evans,

Subjectivity and Religious Belief

(Grana «.aputs:

Christian University Press, 1976).

4 George Lindbeck, The

Nature of Doctrine

74 •

EuroJTh

2:

(London: SPCK, 1984). For an assessment and

critique, see Alister E. McGrath,

The Genesis

of

Doctrine (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), pp. 14-34.

5 For other reflections on European theology, see

Alister E. McGrath, 'The European Roots of

Evangelicalism', Anvil 9 (1992), pp. 239-48.

6 On Calvin s understanding of the dialectic

between theology and experience, see Wilhelm

Balke, The Word

of

God and Experientia

according to Calvin', in W. H. Neuser (ed.),

Calvinus Ecclesiae octor

(Kampen:

Kok,

1978),

pp. 19-31.

7 S llren

Kierkegaard, Unscientific Postscript

(London: Oxford University Press, 1941), pp.

169-224. Cf. P. L. Holmer, 'Kierkegaard and

Religious Propositions', Journal of Religion

35

(1955), pp. 135-46.

8 For a full discussion, see Alister E. McGrath,

Luther s Theology of the Cross

(Oxford:

Blackwell, 1985).

9 Plato, Gorgias 493b--d.

10 Diogenes Alien, The Troces of God (Cambridge,

MA: Cowley Publications, 1981), p. 19.

11 Augustine, Confessions

l.i.l.

Citations are

from the recent translation by Henry Chadwick

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 3.

12

For

a

superb presentation

of Augustine s

thoughts on this tension, see John Burnaby,

Amor

Dei: A

Study

in the

Religion

of St

Augustine London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1938),

pp. 52-73.

13 Confessions XII.xvi.23; Chadwick, p. 257.

14

C. S. Lewis,

Surprised by Joy

(London: Collins,

1959), p. 20.

15 Lewis,

Surprised by Joy

p. 19.

16

C.

S. Lewis, 'The Weight of Glory', in Screwtape

Proposes A Toast (London: Collins, 1965),

pp. 97-8.

17 Simone Weil, Waiting for God (New York:

Putnam, 1951), p. 210.

18 Lewis, 'The Weight of Glory', p. 99.

19

For what

follows, see

McGrath, Luther s

Theology of the Cross. For the implications of

this

approach for

Christian

spirituality, see

Alister McGrath, Roots that Refresh: A Celebra-

tion

of

Reformation Spirituality

London: Hodder

Stoughton, 1992).

20

Lewis,

Surprised by Joy

p. 20.

21 C. S. Lewis, 'The Language of Religion', in

Christian Reflections

(London: Collins, 1981), p.

169.

22 See further McGrath,

Genesis

of

Doctrine

pp.

72-80.

23

Stanley Hauerwas,

The Peaceable Kingdom

(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press,

1983), p. xxi.

24 See

Alister

E. McGrath, Bridge-Building:

Effective Christian Apologetics (Leicester: Inter

Varsity Press, 1992).'



EuroJTh 1993) 2:1 75--76 096Q-2720

• Review rticle

Menschen werden Christen: Das Drama der Bekehrung in den ersten

J ahrhunderten

Gustave

Bardy, Hg.

JosefBlank,

Freiburg: Herder, 1988, 464

S.

DM 48,-.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Der Fortschritt der Entchristlichung des einst

christlichen Europa macht dies vor bereits 40

Jahren

in

franzosischer Sprache erschienene

Buch iiber Bekehrung in den ersten drei

Jahrhunderten

zu

einer hOchst aktuellen

Lektiire. Selten ist auf lebendigere

rt

und

Weise Kirchengeschichte geschrieben worden.

SUMMARY

The progressive de-Christianizing of

Christian Europe makes this book about

conversion in the first three Christian centuries,

which first appeared in French forty years ago,

highly relevant today. Seldom has Church

History been written in so lively a way.

RESUME

e livre, publie en r a n ~ a i s il y a quarante ans,

traite de la conversion dans les trois premiers

siecles de notre ere. L histoire de l Eglise a

rarement ete ecrite d une maniere aussi vivante.

Le processus de dechristianisation de

l Europe me convainc de la pertinence de cet

ouvrage pour notre temps.

W

er ein Buch vierzig

Jahre

~ a c h seiner

Erstauflage in deutscher Ubersetzung

vorlegt, kann mit diesem Unternehmen nur

eine besondere Absicht verfolgen.

Der

Neutestamentler Josef Blank fuhrt

zwei

Griinde an, die ihn zur Ubersetzung des

Buches veranlaBt haben: Einmal

ist

inzwischen

auch in Deutschland

die

Ent-

christlichung fortgeschritten, so daB die

Bekehrung

zum Christentum eine aktuelle

Frage

wird;

weiter

bescheinigt

Blank

dem

Werk, daB ,es sich urn ein vorzugliches Buch

handelt, was viele Kenner bestatigen werden,

das man

nur

mit den bedeutendsten Arbeiten

auf diesem Gebiet vergleichen

kann

8. 7 .

Bei

der Lekture

kann sich

der

Leser dem

Urteil des

Ubersetzers nicht entziehen. Das

Leben der Christen in der Antike ersteht vor

seinen Augen, weil

mit der

Frage

nach

dem

Christwerden in der antiken Welt zugleich

auch die Frage nach dem Christsein

und

-

bleiben

gestellt ist.

In den

ersten drei Kapiteln,

etwa

dem

ersten Drittel des Buches,

erortert der

V

erfasser das

Problem

in der

griechisch

romischen Umwelt des

Christentums, in der

antiken Philosophie und im

Judentum.

Er

kommt zu dem

Ergebnis, daB die

Bekehrung

der

griechisch-romischen

Mentalitat

lange

Zeit

hindurch

vollig fremd bleibt, weil die

antiken Religionen unlosbar

mit

dem Leben

der Familie

und

der Polis verbunden sind 8.

17). Haufiger gab es die Hinwendung zu

einer

bestimmten philosophischen Richtung

8. 76);

dem

Judentum

war

ein verhaltnis

maBig

geringer

Missionserfolg beschieden

8. 121).

Die

Bekehrung

zum

Christentum

unter-

sucht

der

Autor nach

ihren Motiven,

ihren

Forderungen,

den Widerstanden, die sich

ihr entgegensstellten,

und

ihren Methoden.

Das Verlangen nach der Wahrheit steht

an

der

ersten 8telle

der

Motive fur eine Bekeh

rung; die Befreiung vom 8chicksal

und

von

der

8unde

spielen jedoch eine ebenso wichtige

Rolle wie

das 8treben nach der

vorbildlichen

christlichen Heiligkeit. Etwas ausfuhrlicher

hatte sich der Leser aufgrund der heutigen

Diskussion

uber

die

Charismata

die Darstel

lung der Rolle des Wunders bei Bekehrungen

gewunscht;

nach

Bardys Forschungen sind

sie keineswegs ein dominierender

Grund

fur

Konversionen 8. 167).

In

dieser

Frage und

im Blick

auf

den 8tellenwert

der anderen

Gnadengaben

waren

tiefergehende Unter-

suchungen wiinschenswert. Andererseits hat

die

Lekture der

Heiligen 8chriften viele zum

christlichen Glauben gefuhrt, ebenfalls die

Erwartung des Weltendes N

aherwartung

war immer aktuell, 8. 169).

Bardys Untersuchungen uber

die For

derungen, die mit der Bekehrung verbunden

EuroJTh

2:

l •

75



Jochen ber

waren, fuhren

den

Leser ein

in

die Vor

aussetzungen

und in

die Konsequenzen

der

altkirchlichen Taufpraxis. Die

Annahme

des Dogmas und die Ausrichtung

der

christ

lichen

Ethik

an der Forderung vollkommener

Heiligung machen anschaulich, was Absage

an

die Vergangenheit

und

exklusive Bindung

an Christus his

hin

zum

Martyrium

in

haltlich bedeuten. So

konnten

auch die

Widerstande aus

der

Umwelt: die Abwer

bungsversuche von Familie, Gesellschaft,

Religion und Staat nicht ausbleiben. Die

Diskussion, ob ein

Christ

bestimmte Berufe

ergreifen oder auch sonst an

,weltlichen

Veranstaltungen teilnehmen dfirfe vgl. auch

die Untersuchung von Werner Weismann

uber

das

Urteil

der

Kirchenvater zu

den

Schauspielen), wurde nicht minder heill

gefuhrt

als heute. Moralistische Gesetzlich

keit

und

Weltflucht einerseits, zu Sektentum

und Asketentum ftihrend, und Verweltlichung

des

Christentums

auf der

anderen

Seite,

diese beiden

Extreme

bestimmen damals

wie heute die Extrempositionen ethischer

Entscheidungsfindung, die es zu vermeiden

gilt. DaB Irrtum und Wahrheit sich trotz

ihrer Wandlungen zu alien Zeiten gleichen,

durfte

dem

Leser

spatestens

an dieser Stelle

deutlich werden; er ist betroffen

durch

die

Aktualitat der

angeblich so ,antiken Welt:

tua res agitur

Haupt,methode der

Bekehrung

zum

Christentum scheint schon in

der

Antike

das

Zeugnis der vielen

Christen

gewesen zu

sein, die ihren Glauben im Volk

bekannt-

machten.

Der

Verfasser

gesteht

ein, daB

seine Aufzahlung der Mittel

langst

nicht

erschopfend ist - auch hier waren weitere

76 EuroJTh

2:

Untersuchungen

angebracht. Auch das

Thema der Massenbekehrungen eines ganzes

Volkes

zusammen

mit seinem Konig

kann

er nur

am Rande erwahnen S. 305). Das

Buch schlieBt mit

einer Betrachtung

der

Frage,

weshalb

aus

Christen Apostaten

wurden; wobei der Verfasser

in

diese Gruppe

auch jene

einreiht, ,die sich fur die Religion

nicht mehr

interessieren und die wieder

einen heidnischen Lebenswandel aufnehmen,

ohne sich uber

ihre

geistlichen Bedurfnisse

auch

nur die geringsten Gedanken zu

machen (S. 327).

Man

kann dem Ubersetzer zustimmen,

daB dieses Werk

auf

seinem Gebiet wirklich

seinesgleichen sucht.

Bardy

beschreibt nicht

nur trocken die Ekklesiologie

und

die Recht

fertigungslehre der Alten Kirche, sondern

nimmt

den Leser in langen, kleingedruckten

Zitaten mit

hinein

in das

Ringen urn das

Wesen des Christentums in der Antike.

Ungeachtet

der Tatsache, daB Bardy nicht

eines

der

groBen dogmatischen Standard

themen abhandelt,

lernt der

Leser vieles

fiber die Dogmatik

der

Alten Kirche im

Kontext

des Ringens urn die richtige christ

liche Entscheidung. Selten ist wohl

auf

eine

lebendigere rt und Weise Kirchengeschichte

geschrieben worden.

Der

Leser vermiBt nur

ein Register, das die im

Verlauf der

Unter

suchung

angeschnittenen

Themen

leichter

auffinden laBt - vielleicht konnte der Verlag

ein solches bei einer Neuauflage nachliefern?

Jochen

Eber

Centro de Ensino Teologico,

Mato

Preto

(Brazil)

Date post:	23-Feb-2018
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Alister McGrath - Theology and Experience

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